Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Finding Lost Treasures of Childhood

I was talking to a friend the other day about books we treasured from our childhoods. We have saved the books we loved but sometimes books get lost over the years or in my friend's case, during her frequent military moves. I told her she could find them through Internet booksellers. She said, really?! She had never apparently used Internet booksellers so I thought I would tell the story of one treasure I thought I would never find again. You can see its picture above.

I loved my copy of Cinderella and held on to it for a long time but at some point during my childhood it disappeared. It may have gotten given to my Montessori school library as many of my not-so-valued children's books did. I just don't know. I remembered it was a very large, thin book with the title Cinderella and that the cover had a green background with a golden coach and Cinderella in a golden gown. I loved the illustrations which showed gorgeous 18th-century clothes. I have never seen another Cinderella version that appeared as beautiful to me and I did look hoping to find "my" Cinderella. But without remembering the author or illustrator, I was stuck.

Last summer, 30-some years after losing my copy, I took a class on fairy tales online through Rutgers University with Monica Edinger and Roxanne Hsu Feldman aka fairrosa. I told the story of my lost book in a class post and Monica told me that there was a detailed Cinderella bibliography available through Rochester. She recommended that I search it. Off I hurried to search the bibliography and checked their General Collections list. I used the find function on the tool bar and searched for golden, hoping to find a mention of a Cinderella in a golden gown. I had noticed over the years that she is almost never shown in a golden gown so I thought that might help my search. I used the find function to search by golden and after finding various golden shoes and fish, I finally found this entry:

Andreas, Evelyn. Cinderella: An Old Favorite with New Pictures. Illustrated by Ruth Ives. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1954.

[The narrative follows Robert Samber’s English adaptation of Perrault. The illustrations use 18th-century settings and dress; the fairy is a young, attractive blonde, as is Cinder-wench. Her ballgown is golden yellow, trimmed with pink roses. Her wedding gown is white, and the flowers adorning the aisle of the church are pink roses. The kingdom rejoices in their salons, while the honeymooners sit in a garden at a table situated on an oriental carpet beneath a white cloth drapery that serves as a sort of tent.]

This sounded like my childhood memory of the illustrations. Off I went to the Internet used booksellers' search engines. I chose to check Abebooks first, much as I dislike it, because you sometimes see cover images by the booksellers' listings. There were a couple of images of the cover and it looked enough like my childhood memory that I ordered a cheap copy of the book. When it arrived a week later I opened it up and yes, those were the illustrations I remembered! The story is still as beautiful and satisfying as my childhood memory had recalled.

Luckily I had specifically ordered a large-format copy because according to WorldCat, this Cinderella was reprinted by Wonder Books in a smaller-format edition (21 cm.) with fewer pages up to 1977. It appears to be only the Grosset & Dunlap copies that are folio size (31 cm.) with the complete set of illustrations.

So my advice to all of you is to search the following Internet book search engines for your lost treasures: AddAll Used, ViaLibri, or eBay Books, though eBay is frustrating to use. I have not figured out why they don't have an advanced search form where you can search by author and title. Don't forget to limit the search engines to search by price, ascending so that you find the cheapest copies listed first. Some of the Internet prices are crazy, in my opinion anyway.

If you are having trouble finding your lost book through Internet booksellers, check WorldCat through their free portal on the web. Since I'm a librarian I can use the regular WorldCat, which searches all libraries, not just the ones accessible through the free portal. If your book was published in another country, check that country's national library catalog. Even now there are books that don't appear in WorldCat but may appear in other library catalogs that are not yet a part of WorldCat.

If you are stuck and don't have enough information for a search like I did, find out if there is a bibliography of the subject, the author, or the illustrator that may contain your elusive title. You can post queries about lost treasures to listservs for children's librarians or to an interesting resource at the bookseller, Loganberry Books, Book Stumpers, where for a small fee you can post your query. I enjoy reading their queries and archives when I have the time. There are a lot of people hunting for treasure out there!

Note: Apparently Ruth Ives illustrated other fairy tales and children's books during the 1950s and 1960s. I may try to get hold of these other books to see her illustrations. Neither WorldCat or ArchiveGrid list papers of Evelyn Andreas or Ruth Ives which makes me sad. So many children's book authors and illustrators are forgotten today and I don't think judging by this book that these two deserve to be!

Second note: I may post future posts on other lost and found treasures. Let me know if you want me to do that.

Your story sounds very familiar to me. I fell in love with this Cinderella when I was 3 or 4 years old. My oldest sister brought it home to me and my big sister where we fell in love with the most beautiful Cinderella ever! My book got lost in our family moves over the years. I started looking for it again about 15 years ago with no luck. We thought it was a "Big Golden Book" or "Giant Golden Book. We looked on line, old book stores and talked to anyone that might have insight. Our mother passed away in September and we sisters were broken hearted. My big sister went home and went on line and looked for hours (it seemed to be helping her grief). At around 4 am she came across something that sounded and looked right on abook.com from a lady in Maryland. That was it!We had commited to getting together as sisters to talk about our mom, cry, laught etc. On our first "Sister Day" she gave me a gift box. When I unwrapped it I could see in the 1/2" Seperation of the tissue, I recognized it. Don't ask me how I knew what it was. I was absolutely dumbfounded!I had given up on ever finding the book. Isn't she the most glamorous, beautiful Cinderella ever?!! Thanks for reading my comment!Joyce

I'm so sorry to hear of your mother's death and delighted that your rediscovery of this beautiful Cinderella brought you pleasure and peace at this difficult time in your life. Thank you so much for sharing this story with me!

I also remembered this edition of Cinderella from childhood. The most beautifully illustrated Cinderella by far - images that have stayed in my mind for a lifetime. It was my younger sister's book - got lost over the years. Wanted to find it for the next generation but figured it would be impossible. It was j And it was impossible until the internet! The next generation missed it, but now the grandchildren can enjoy it! I just entered "Cinderella Illustrated Book" or "Books", went to Google images, and there it was - that beautiful image on the cover that remains impressed in my memory. From there, I was able to find that it was adapted by Evelyn Andreas and illustrated by Ruth Ives. From there, it was just a matter of an internet search to find the right edition. Have been amazed at the fact that it is still out there. At the time, it was one of many cheap (35 cents?), illustrated fairy tale books for children.

I was so thrilled to find this page. I have to tell you a remarkable little tale myself. I have always adored this copy of Cinderella. It is so special, I have remarkably kept hold of it; though I asked my mother to buy it for me at a supermarket nearly 40 years ago! I can relate to each and every comment about this book. But the twist in my plot is: for years I have been searching for a very unique copy of "Sleeping Beauty" which I would run to on every visit to the house of an elderly lady we knew. I think I liked it because I was a brunette, and the Sleeping Beauty depicted was brunette; which was unusual in the midst of America's love affair with the California Blonde of the 70's; but I think, even more, it was the chosen time period and style of the illustrations as a whole. Today it hit me to look up "Sleeping Beauty" under Google Images and I found the illustrations right away. And scrolling down the drawings, I realized they looked just like my Cinderella illustrations! I have had the privilege of looking at Cinderella for years, but the Sleeping Beauty is a hazy dream; so up until that moment, I hadn't thought they could be the same illustrator! I read the SB illustrator was Ruth Ives. So, I first found a copy on Etsy for only $9 with shipping and purchased it; then dashed to my bookshelf and literally teared up and shrieked to my family, "It is, It's Ruth Ives!!" There are few things as fun as finding a favorite childhood book on the internet...I wish everyone well on finding more! I know I have finally found a few in the last year. As the internet builds up more and more information, even with sites that have listing of books based on only bits of information like the golden dress you mentioned, Jenny, there is a lot of delightful possibility out there...

The annonymous profile comment last night at around 2 AM about the Sleeping Beauty-Cinderella books was from me, Rebecca. I meant to sign it :) Thank you for your lovely blog, Jenny!Please feel free to add this to my post :) I feel i found the sisterhood of the Cinderella Book! ha ha!

I found your site after goggling Ruth Ives. I've never seen the book on Cinderella, but I have a book on Sleeping Beauty that was illustrated by Ruth Ives. Even as a woman in my 50s i love it. The pictures amazed me as a child and still amaze me with its beauty. Isn't it wonderful how these books can fill us with joy no matter our age.

About this Blog

I will be posting occasional posts on the history of children's literature and old children's books, from the Middle Ages to the present day from Europe, England and America. Yes, children's books are that old and I want to share them with you. The links above are to resources on the Web for learning more about the history of children's literature. Feel free to comment and ask questions and I'll answer them as best as I can.

About Me

I'm a rare book librarian and a specialist in the history of children's literature. I kept all my children's books from my childhood and kept collecting more. I grew up back when you could still find wonderful old books in used bookstores quite cheaply so my collection ranges from 1800 to the present and if I ever get it unpacked, there probably are over 10,000 children's books. Which doesn't count all the other books in the areas of science fiction, fantasy, romance, historical novels, and history of children's literature.... I'm also a genealogist who has been collecting family stories and research for over forty years.